Who Wants To Live Forever?
by Ansela
Summary: The views of someone looking back on lives lost. Slight xover with Highlander


**ANSELA: I know this story is sad, but it kind of reflects my mood when I was writing it. It happens to be the product of too many hours of listening to _Queen_and watching _Highlander_after coming home from a crappy day at school. My brother read it while looking though my files and presured me into posting it here.**

**EL MEANYA DI: I was looking for the lyrics to _School of Rock_ you idiot. **

**ANSELA: _Stargate_, _Highlander_ and _Who Wants To Live Forever_ don't belong to me. Anyone who wishes to sue me will get a Yu-Gi-Oh collection, a near complete set of _The Chronicles of Pern,_a computer that's older than Methos and a laptop to match. Any flames will be used to heat Ruth's Weyr (damn, don't own him either.)**

**--------------------------------------**

_There's no time for us_  
_There's no place for us  
__What is this thing that fills our dreams  
__Yet slips away from us_

I shake as I carefully clean off the inscription on the gravestone, fighting back tears as I rub the cloth over the engraved name in worn stone. Every decade I return to care for the three graves, to pay my respects to my closest ever friends.

_Who wants to live forever?  
__Who wants to live forever?  
__Ooh_

Only the Goa'uld truly wish to live forever, truly want eternal life. Every day since their deaths I wish that I could join them, that I could rest in peace next to them. Sometimes I stare at the stars, unmoving as I wish to leave this planet and fight them until the inevitable comes to me as well. I don't want to live forever, none of us really do.

_There's no chance for us  
__It's all decided for us  
__This world has only one  
__Sweet moment set aside for us_

Their lives were always going to be shorter than mine, but the life they chose robbed me of them even earlier. I should have remembered that they only had a short time in which to live, that their fates were decided, but I somehow forgot. In the end not even the most powerful healing technology in the universe helped, not the sarcophagi, not the Asgard healing technology, nothing. Their time was up, they had to die, and there was no second chance for them.

_Who wants to live forever?  
__Who wants to live forever?  
__Ooooooh_

I carefully lay down the cloth and kneel at the middle grave, remembering the final battle, remembering how they fought on to protect my lifeless body, even though they were wounded themselves. I remember that when I came to and saw even Teal'c succumb to the wounds all over him, I lost it myself. I slew the majority of the attacking Jaffa that day, the blood wrath causing me to continue fighting even after I ran out of ammunition.

_Who dares to love to forever?  
__Oh oh  
__Our love must die_

I flinch as a hand touches my shoulder, and I look up into the face of my teacher, the one who taught me about loss and betrayal. After their deaths I fled to him, needing a shoulder to cry on. He helped me fake the death of who I was then, as he'd helped me before. We were more than friends, but we weren't lovers either. We were there for each other whenever we needed it, whenever we lost someone close to us, whenever our pasts came to haunt us. Whenever love dies on us.

_But touch my tears  
__With your lips  
__Touch my world  
__With your fingertips_

He leans down and dries the tears that have trailed down my cheeks, eyes sparkling as he pulls me into his arms. I accept the embrace, pulling him even closer as I finally let go of the block on my emotions. I don't ask how he knew I'd be there, remembering that he still had contacts amongst the Watchers.

_And we can have forever  
__And we can love forever  
__Forever is our today_

His presence reminded me of his words at our first meeting, in Gaul after the Roman army torched my village, slaughtering everyone that had taken shelter within. I had been holding my husband's lifeless body, asking the gods why I had lived when everyone I knew and loved was dead. He always reminded me that while our lovers may die, the love we have for them lives on. But I never loved anyone like I loved those three, two brothers and a secret lover.

_Who wants to live forever?  
__Who wants to live forever?  
__Forever is our today  
__Who waits forever anyway?_

I knew that they would wait forever, as he would. He had never told me his true name, and I never asked. There were always more important matters; there was always a more pressing concern for us. What was important was that, even one hundred years after their deaths, he was still there for me. And I knew that they would always be waiting, in whatever afterlife existed, be it Heaven or Hell.

_Here lies Jonathon Jack O'Neill_  
_1947-2012  
__Brave Warrior  
__Great Friend  
__He will always be remembered_

_Here lies  
__Daniel Jackson  
__1959-2012  
__Unappreciated Genius  
__Loyal Friend  
__He was always there_

_Here lies  
__Teal'c  
__?-2012  
__Unflinching Fighter  
__True Friend  
__He could always raise a laugh_


End file.
